The Irish In St. Louis, Missouri

The website of the St. Louis Genealogy Society (SLGS) is a must for anyone doing research in city. The 'Irish in St. Louis' section of the website has three very useful listings. First, you will find a list of all the Roman Catholic parishes in the city and their year of foundation. The introduction helpfully points out that researchers should "compare the church address and your ancestor’s address on a St. Louis map" to determine which Church a person of interest may have worshipped at. Thankfully, the website has a map section.

I have previously written about Repeal Associations in relation to Terrence Punch's work in Prince Edward Island, Canada newspapers. A meeting of the Repeal Association of the Friends of Ireland took place in St. Louis on 10 May, 1842. The Missouri Republican newspaper reported on the meeting and an article listed 172 men and where the Irish-born, which comprised the vast majority, were from in Ireland. The SLGS has reproduced the list and helpfully added information for many of the men from other record sets.

There is also a collection of notices from local newspapers concerning Irish immigrants and their descendants. The vast majority are death notices, with some information wanted adverts also included. Some included Irish places of origin.

In conjunction with these useful resources, also check out my blog post about Ward 2 of St. Louis in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census. Irish places of origin were recorded for more than 300 people.

New York State Naturalizations 1802 - 1814

Thomas Addis Emmet was a lawyer who was heavily involved in the United Irishmen organization in the 1790s. Born in Cork, he was arrested on the eve of the 1798 rebellion and eventually settled in New York City, where he lived out the remainder of his days. He died there in 1827.[1] His grandson, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, amassed a considerable collection of important documents and the collection was donated to the New York Public Library in 1896.[2]  

One of those documents is a list of immigrants naturalized in New York State between 1802 and 1814. Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet was known for his pro-Irish independence sympathies and the vast majority of the 115 names on the list are for men from Ireland. Importantly, the Irish county of birth is provided for almost every entry.

Early New York Naturalizations

The names were transcribed and published in a 1963 edition of the Bulletin of The New York Public Library.[3] This edition of the bulletin was digtized by Internet Archive and is freely available online. Click here for access.

The Emmet Collection was digitized by the New York Public Library and is available to view here.

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[1] Thomas Addis Emmet, born 1764, died 1827 in New York City, buried Saint Mark's Church in the Bowery, New York, New York, memorial number 6813864; digital image, Find A Grave (http;//www.findagrave.com), accessed 24 September 2016.

[2] Thomas Addis Emmet collection, Archives and Manuscripts; The New York Public Library (http://archives.nypl.org), accessed 24 September 2016.

[3] Wolfe, Richard J. Early New York Naturalization Records in the Emmet Collection With a List of Aliens Naturalized in New York 1802-1814, Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Volume 67, Number 4, April 1963, pp. 211-217; accessed Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/earlynewyorknatu00wolf), 24 September 2016.